


It Hurts When Friendships Don't Last

by ReleasingmyInsanity



Category: Sesame Street (TV)
Genre: Canon Character of Color, Episode Tag, Families of Choice, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Mild Angst, Minor character mentions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-27 00:40:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18728179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReleasingmyInsanity/pseuds/ReleasingmyInsanity
Summary: After her friend Gloria leaves, Maria feels sad about their friendship. Bob cheers her up.





	It Hurts When Friendships Don't Last

Maria sat on the steps of 123 Sesame Street feeling hurt. Gloria had just left, with a hug and a comment that they should see each other more often. Maria had returned the sentiment, but she couldn’t help but feel that their friendship would be better off remaining long distance.

“Hey, you doing okay?” Bob asked as he sat down beside her.

Maria felt relieved that it was Bob. She wasn’t sure she could face her partners right now. And she definitely didn’t want to talk to any of the parental figures on the street. But she could talk to Bob. He was basically her big brother, and they were a lot alike. He understood her.

Maria shrugged. “I guess so.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Bob asked. “You were so happy this morning that your friend was coming to visit. Did something happen?”

“Not exactly.” Maria told him, looking at the ground. “It’s more what didn’t happen. Gloria was my best friend growing up and I thought when we saw each other it would be the same. I thought we would be the sort of friends where no matter how long it’s been, it’s like no time has passed at all.”

“But it wasn’t like that was it?” Bob asked sympathetically.

“No.” Maria said, blinking to try and stop the tears that were trying to fall. “It’s been so long, and we’ve both changed so much. We didn’t have anything to talk about anymore. Oh we did okay when the kids were around and we could talk to them. But just the two of us, we were stuck. ‘How’s your work?’ ‘Fine.’ ‘How’s yours?’ ‘Fine.’ ‘Thank you for the toy you sent Gabi for her birthday.’ ‘You’re welcome.’ The only thing we had to talk about was memories.”

“Was that fun at least?” Bob asked, resting his hand comfortingly on her back.

Maria shook her head. “No. That got caught in a loop too. It didn’t matter what I said, she would always bring it back to the time I fixed something. If I said ‘remember when we wore out your mother’s salsa record dancing?’ She would respond with ‘And remember how you fixed the gramophone when it broke?’ I didn’t want to talk about fixing things. I wanted to talk about all the fun things we did as kids. But it was like almost all she could remember about me was fixing stuff. Like our friendship didn’t matter.”

“Oh.” Bob said as he realized why Maria was hurting. “Oh Maria. I’m sure she didn’t mean that she didn’t care about your friendship. She was excited to see you too wasn’t she?”

Maria nodded. “She was. And I know she meant well. But I felt terrible. That’s a sore spot for me. Some people have a calling that they’ve wanted their whole life and worked toward. I haven’t.”

Bob nodded sympathetically.

“Fixing things wasn’t my passion as a child,” Maria said. “Everyone seems to think I always wanted to fix things for a living but I didn’t. I learned how because my family said that if I was going to keep breaking my toys, I should know how to repair them myself.”

Maria shook her head. “I was a little girl, Bob. One week I wanted to be a doctor, the next I wanted to be a ballerina. I’ve wanted to be an athlete, and an astronaut, and an actress. I didn’t realize that fixing things was what I loved until I was an adult.”

Bob nodded. “I know exactly what you mean. Sure, I’ve always loved music, but being a teacher wasn’t what I wanted until I was older.”

“Exactly,” Maria said. “And I tried several different things before I finally figured out what was right for me. I’m not ashamed of that fact. I’m proud of it. And having people act like my entire life has revolved around fixing things hurts. It’s like I don’t have a personality. Like all I do is fix things. And now raise Gabi. Don’t I have a personality, Bob? Don’t I do other things?”

Bob squeezed her shoulder. “Of course you do. You do all kinds of things. You can ride a bike, and skate, and sing, and dance. You’re fluent in three languages and know the basics in several more. You have a degree in engineering, none of the rest of us can say that. You’re fun to be around and good at making people laugh. And there are a lot of “remember this?” stories that don’t involve either of those things.”

Maria looked at him. “Like what?”

“Remember the time that police officer said he was looking for you on official business and then asked what ‘ _beso_ ’ meant?”

Maria smiled a bit at that. “So I kissed the top of his head and he wanted to know why he got the mushy assignments.”

“Or what about the time we went to New Mexico and the Count called…”

“Multiple times just to count the number of times he called,” Maria finished. “His phone bill must have been awful.”

Bob laughed, “It really must have. And remember how you and Luis kept feeding Oscar all those hot peppers?”

“That was his own fault.” Maria retorted. “He kept asking for more even though they were clearly too hot for him.”

“You could have been responsible and stopped him.”

“What would have been fun about that?” They both laughed.

“And I remember when you all surprised me in Puerto Rico for my birthday.” Maria said. “I’ve never loved you all more.”

Bob smiled at his “sister.” “We love you too. You’re sounding cheerier. See? I told you, you do more than just fix things and take care of Gabi.”

“But none of those other things are important,” Maria said glumly, her enthusiasm dropping again as she realized that. “Don’t I do anything important besides that?”

“You want important?” Bob asked, still smiling. “I can do that. Who’s the one who makes sure Luis remembers to eat? You are. You’re the only one who was fluent in ASL when Linda first moved in. The rest of us knew enough to get by, but you, you were having long conversations with her immediately.”

Maria looked up at that. “That was nothing special. I knew the language so I used it.”

Bob shook his head. “It wasn’t nothing to Linda. She’s told me so many times how much better she felt about being somewhere where no one else was Deaf, for the first time since she was a kid, after meeting you.”

“She’s said that to me too.”

“See?” Bob said. “That’s important. And Spanish. You’ve helped out so many times when someone only speaks Spanish and they need help making themselves clear.”

Maria started to smile again. Just a little. Bob was right, knowing multiple languages wasn’t just a party trick or something that had looked good on her college applications. It really mattered.

“And don’t forget the kids,” Bob continued. “You’re Gabi’s mother sure, but you’ve always had time for all the kids on the street. You play with them and listen to them and let them know that they’re important and creative and smart. And that means a lot to all of them.”

“And,” Bob winked at her. “You’re the best honorary sister I’ve ever had.”

“Thanks,” Maria told him earnestly. “I do feel better.”

“You’re sure?” Bob asked. “You don’t want me to keep going? I can find more things that you do that are great.”

Maria giggled. “Keep them in reserve for the next time I need a confidence boost.”

“Okay,” Bob said with a smile. “And while I can’t promise that your friendship with Gloria will ever go back to what it once was. I do know that all of us here on Sesame Street think you’re the best. And that we don’t just see you as the person who fixes things. We see you as the wonderful multifaceted person you are.”

Maria leaned into her friend’s side as Bob gave her a hug. “Thank you,” she said. “I’m really lucky to have you in my life.”

Bob kissed the top of her head. “We’re lucky to have you in our lives too.”  


**Author's Note:**

> Sesame Street has been brought to you today by the letters F and O and by the number 12.
> 
> I’m not at all sure that anyone else took this episode the way I did. But it felt to me like Maria and Gloria had grown apart and didn’t really have a lot in common anymore. (And I wasn’t too impressed with Gloria for ignoring Maria’s request that she not do tricks with her plane. That’s no way to be a good friend.)
> 
> I identify very strongly with the fact that both Maria and Gina tried several different jobs before they found what worked for them. Episodes that act like Maria always knew what she wanted to do and erase that element get on my nerves.
> 
> Normally I wouldn’t have written an angsty story for Sesame Street, even light angst, but it just appeared in my head almost fully written. So I figured why not type it up and share it?
> 
> The episode this story follows is 3045.
> 
> The episode where “Officer Krupky” was looking for Maria to find out what “Beso” meant is 581.
> 
> The gang went to New Mexico in season 7. The arc ran from episode 810 to episode 815.
> 
> The Count’s phone bill would have been terrible because of calling long distance many times during the day in a time when long distance was expensive.
> 
> The trip to Puerto Rico was the beginning of Season 11. Episodes 1316-1321.
> 
> Bob and Maria’s friendship brings me a lot of joy.


End file.
